September 17, 2008

New guide for clients having trouble serving documents

The Family Law in BC website has just added a new self-help guide on how to serve documents when the other party in a family law case is avoiding getting served or is not available.

Court rules often require that documents be personally served on another party, but sometimes the server cannot find the other party or the other party repeatedly and deliberately avoids the process server. In these cases, a master or judge may make a court order allowing the documents to be served in another way. This is called substituted (or substitutional) service because the applicant can substitute the method of service ordered by the master or judge for the service required by the court rules.

To do this, the applicant must apply to court for an order for substituted service. This type of application is sometimes called a "procedural application." An order for substituted service allows the parties to get on with the main issue in their case, such as getting a custody or access order or changing the amount of support.

Check out the What's New page for other recent additions to the Family Law site (for example, a Russian version of the serving documents outside BC self-help guide and improved introductory pages for the divorce self-help guides).

If you have any feedback or ideas about new material you'd like to see on the family law website, please send us an e-mail.